Climate Change and Forests

The global climate change problem has finally entered the world's consciousness. While efforts to find a solution have increased momentum, international attention has focused primarily on the industrial and energy sectors. The forest, and land-use sector, however, remains one of the most significant untapped opportunities for carbon mitigation. The expiration of the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period in 2012 presents an opportunity for the international community to put this sector back on the agenda.

In this timely, wide-ranging volume, an international team of experts explain the links between climate change and forests, highlighting the potential utility of this sector within emerging climate policy frameworks and carbon markets. After framing forestry activities within the larger context of climate-change policy, the contributors analyze the operation and efficacy of market-based mechanisms for forest conservation and climate change.
Drawing on experiences from around the world, the authors present concrete recommendations for policymakers, project developers, and market participants. They discuss sequestration rights in Chile, carbon offset programs in Australia and New Zealand, and emerging policy incentives at all levels of the U.S. government. The book also explores the different voluntary schemes for carbon crediting, provides an overview of best practices in carbon accounting, and presents tools for use in future sequestration and offset programs. It concludes with consideration of various incentive options for slowing deforestation and protecting the world's remaining forests.

Climate Change and Forests provides a realistic view of the role that the forest and land-use sector can play in a post-Kyoto regime. It will serve as a practical reference manual for anyone concerned about climate policy, including the negotiators working to define a robust and enduring international framework for addressing climate change.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright Page

Contents

Foreword

I am delighted and honored to have been invited to write a foreword for this excellent
and timely work. It is particularly timely because in December 2007, in a
historic decision, the parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC), meeting in Bali, Indonesia, decided to include the issue of
avoided deforestation—or “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation”
(REDD), as it is known...

PART ONE: Introduction

Chapter 1. Climate Change and Forestry:
An Introduction

Climate change is one of the most significant global challenges of our time,
and addressing it requires the urgent formulation of comprehensive and
effective policy responses. A changing climate affects nearly every sector of the
world’s economy and is intricately intertwined with other major environmental
threats such as population...

Chapter 2. The Idea of Market-Based Mechanisms
for Forest Conservation and Climate Change

The world has approximately 4 billion hectares of forests, roughly 30 percent
of them primary forests.1 Their provision of goods and services plays an
important role in the overall health of the planet and is of fundamental importance
to human economy and welfare. These goods and services—collectively
called ecosystem goods and services...

PART TWO: The International Arena

Chapter 3. History and Context of LULUCF
in the Climate Regime

The subject of land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) was introduced
in the run-up to the third Conference of the Parties (COP 3) in
1997 in Kyoto, Japan, at a very late stage in the negotiations that resulted in the
adoption of the Kyoto Protocol. The discussion was hedged with a serious lack
of understanding of...

During the discussions leading up to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol,
the inclusion of forestry-related emissions in the emerging treaty turned
out to be one of the most contentious points and lay at the center of many heated
and emotional debates. The attention of several nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) remains focused on “carbon...

Chapter 5. Forest Carbon and Other Ecosystem Services:
Synergies between the Rio Conventions

Sequestering carbon in forests by planting trees and reducing deforestation and
forest degradation is an internationally accepted measure used to mitigate climate
change. Projects that implement such measures may be awarded tradable
“carbon credits.” These carbon sequestration...

Chapter 6. Forestry Projects under the Clean Development
Mechanism and Joint Implementation:
Rules and Regulations

Under the Kyoto Protocol, nearly all industrialized countries and economies
in transition (“Annex I countries”) agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions to at least 5 percent below the level of 1990. Emissions from a
variety of sectors including energy...

The Humbo Community-Based Natural Regeneration Project offers an opportunity
to combine natural resource management, carbon sequestration, biodiversity,
and poverty alleviation. The project is seeking registration as a CDM
project activity. In 2005 the World Bank’s Biocarbon Fund indicated interest in purchasing
the carbon offsets generated by the project, which was developed and is
being implemented by...

PART THREE: Practical Experiences

The design of an afforestation and reforestation (AR) project under the Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol is a two-stage
process. The first stage includes the definition of a project idea, the evaluation of
its eligibility under CDM rules, and preliminary estimations of carbon removals,
among other things. The second...

Case Study: The San Nicol

Carbon sequestered in biomass or soils may be released accidentally because
of fire, windstorms, or other natural hazards or because of conversion of
the land to agriculture or pasture. The so-called non-permanence risk constitutes
a fundamental difference between biological sequestration projects and projects
that reduce the emission of carbon into the atmosphere. The risk of non-permanence
matters because sequestering carbon temporarily does not have the same
effect on...

Projects based on land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF), such as
afforestation and reforestation (AR) projects, have the ability to produce real,
significant, positive carbon effects. However, without scientifically tested and rigorously
applied methods for measuring these effects, the actual carbon dioxide
emission reductions will not be quantifiable or creditable. Fortunately, widely recognized
standards...

Chapter 11. Characterizing Sequestration Rights
Legally in Chile

Forestry is an important economic sector in Chile. Tree plantations currently
make up 14 percent of forest cover. Although forests are harvested primarily
for industrial purposes and firewood, they are also used for animal grazing and
are protected for conservation reasons. Since the 1990s the forestry sector’s contribution
to GDP...

Chapter 12. Legal Issues and Contractual Solutions
for LULUCF Projects under the
Clean Development Mechanism

Over the past decade, substantial scientific work has been done to enable the
relatively accurate modeling of and accounting for greenhouse gases
sequestered by land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) activities. Recognizing
that the sequestration of carbon by forestry activities provides a valuable
environmental service...

PART FOUR: Outlook:
Avoided Deforestation and the
Post-Kyoto Agenda

Deforestation is one of the underlying causes of current levels of atmospheric
CO2 concentration. It has been estimated that about 40 percent of CO2
emissions over the last 200 years have been from changes in land use and land
management, most of which have been deforestation.1 The remaining forest
ecosystems still...

Chapter 14. An Accounting Mechanism for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of Forests in Developing Countries

Tropical deforestation is an important issue in the debate over the global carbon
cycle and climate change. The release of CO2 due to tropical deforestation can
be estimated from three main parameters: the level of tropical deforestation and
degradation, the spatial distribution of forest types, and the amount of biomass and
soil carbon for different forest types. Our knowledge of the rates of change of tropical
forests and the distribution...

Case Study: Creative Financing and Multisector Partners in Madagascar

The Ankeneny-Zahamena-Mantadia Biodiversity Conservation Corridor and
Restoration Project (“Mantadia”) is situated in the eastern portion of Madagascar,
touching on five major protected areas and a forest station. These are
Zahamena National Park, the Zahamena Strict Nature Reserve, the Mangerivola
Special Reserve, Mantadia National Park, the Analamazaotra Special Reserve
(commonly known as...

Chapter 15. A Latin American Perspective on Land Use,
Land-Use Change, and Forestry Negotiations
under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change

Our goal in this chapter is to provide some basic elements to facilitate understanding
of the dynamics and reasons behind the positions of Latin American
countries in the land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) negotiations
under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC). To this end we present an overview of the negotiation groups involving
Latin American...

Case Study: The Noel Kempff Climate Action Project, Bolivia

The Noel Kempff Climate Action Project (NKCAP) is the second largest
greenhouse gas emission reduction project developed under the Activity
Implemented Jointly program of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC). Designed by the Nature Conservancy and Fundaci

Tropical forests store 200 billion tonnes of carbon (200 petagrams [Pg] C)
globally.1 Deforestation is releasing these stocks into the atmosphere, and
both regional and global feedbacks could cause massive carbon emissions, contributing
to global warming and the collapse of the ecological equilibrium of tropical
forest ecosystems.2 In Amazonia...

Forests are the world’s most important terrestrial storehouses of carbon and play
an important role in controlling the climate. Yet in many parts of the world
forests are degraded and destroyed to expand agricultural land, gain timber, or clear
space for infrastructure or mining. Tropical deforestation has severe consequences
for biodiversity. It affects...

PART FIVE: National Systems and
Voluntary Carbon Offsets

Chapter 18. Legislative Approaches to Forest Sinks
in Australia and New Zealand:
Working Models for Other Jurisdictions?

In this chapter we summarize the approaches taken by Australia and New
Zealand, two neighboring countries with historically different views on participation
in the Kyoto Protocol, toward regulating and encouraging the creation
and trading of carbon commodities from forest sinks.
Australia and New Zealand have...

Case Study: The West Coast Development Trust,a New Zealand Example

New Zealand’s West Coast Development Trust shows that when the right
economic incentives are in place, forest conservation can compete economically
as well as politically with deforestation drivers such as commercial logging.
It also shows how funds might be managed in project-based initiatives
through the establishment of a trust managed by local community leaders along
with donors, local...

Chapter 19. Using Forests and Farms
to Combat Climate Change:
How Emerging Policies in the United States
Promote Land Conservation and Restoration

Forests, grasslands, and agricultural lands across the United States play an integral
role in sequestering carbon dioxide emissions. Estimates for 2005 show
that this carbon “sink” absorbs 780 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
each year, equal to approximately 11 percent of 2005 U.S. greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions. However, development and other land conversion activities
have...

Case Study: The Van Eck Forest Management Project in California

The Pacific Forest Trust submitted California’s first greenhouse gas (GHG)
emission reduction project with the California Climate Action Registry
(CCAR) on behalf of the Van Eck Forest Foundation in July 2006.1
Some 45 percent of California was naturally forested, yet over 40 percent of
this was lost to...

Chapter 20. Carving a Niche for Forests
in the Voluntary Carbon Markets

The voluntary offsetting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions started as early
as 1989, when Applied Energy Services Corporation (AES), an American
electricity company, decided to invest in an agroforestry project in Guatemala.1
With this investment AES wished to offset the GHG emissions of its new cogeneration
plant...

Case Study: Reflections on Community-Based Carbon Forestry in Mexico

My involvement in community-based carbon management started one
night in 1993 when I was awakened in Edinburgh by a phone call from
someone at Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Ecología (INE) informing me that the
institute had approved funding to investigate the feasibility of supporting agroforestry
and forest restoration in indigenous areas of Chiapas using carbon service
payments.
The idea of using...

Regulated carbon markets create value through governments’ legislation of
emission reduction requirements and definition of market rules. Such regulatory
activity creates standardized units of trade and rules regulating, among other
things, the creation of offsets that can be sold into the market. In addition to the
regulated...

Case Study: Carbon Sequestration in the Sierra Gorda of Mexico

Bosque Sustentable, A.C., a nongovernmental organization working in the
Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve and surrounding areas in eastern central
Mexico, signed a contract with the United Nations Foundation in March 2006
for the sale of 5,230 emission removal units (t CO2e). The contract was the culmination
of years of hard work, and our experience with the international carbon
market during this time highlights the difficulties and opportunities for
organizations interested...

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